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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/22645975">Plan B</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/InsanityIsClarity/pseuds/InsanityIsClarity'>InsanityIsClarity</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Rapunzel's Tangled Adventure (Cartoon), Tangled (2010)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Cassandra's Revenge AU, Family Fluff, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Team as Family</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-02-10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-02-10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-04-28 12:54:35</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>3,610</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/22645975</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/InsanityIsClarity/pseuds/InsanityIsClarity</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>When Cassandra hits Varian with that rock, she hits him harder than she intended. He falls asleep, and has one of the weirder dreams he’s ever had, and then he doesn’t wake up. Zhan Tiri switches to Plan B.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Cassandra &amp; Ghostly Girl (Disney: Tangled), Cassandra &amp; Rapunzel (Disney: Tangled), Eugene Fitzherbert | Flynn Rider &amp; Rapunzel, Eugene Fitzherbert | Flynn Rider &amp; Varian, Eugene Fitzherbert | Flynn Rider/Rapunzel, Rapunzel &amp; Varian (Disney)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>47</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>410</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Plan B</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><ul class="associations">


        <li>
            Inspired by

            <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/558028">This Varian Comic</a> by lunarcrown.
        </li>

    </ul><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>not sure how happy I am with this??? but hey. took me two weeks so here</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>They climb steps and steps before they make it to the top. The whole time, Varian keeps his mouth firmly shut, afraid he’ll say something </span>
  <em>
    <span>else </span>
  </em>
  <span>that’ll make things go wrong, and keeps walking, trying to be okay with the feel of Cassandra’s gloved hand on his arm, and failing miserably. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Cassandra is so much like he was: angry and out for revenge, blaming everything on Rapunzel. He feels like </span>
  <span>he’s looking into a mirror</span>
  <span> Rapunzel must have, watching a friend throw everything away and not being able to do a thing about it.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>When they reach the top of the stairs, she removes the rock cuffs, and he ignores the sight of bruising on his wrists and attempts to say something again.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>He tries talking to her, tries helping her, but it doesn’t work, because she’s nothing like he was. She’s talking to someone he can’t see, she’s convinced she isn’t the villain at all, and she has always been far more competent than him.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>She hits him with a rock, and he goes flying, but adrenaline helps him ignore the pain and get up again. Talking her out of this is more important, anyway.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>So he tries, but he fails, and then he’s looking down on the world from hundreds of feet up and realizing that he’s very much afraid of heights. If he nearly falls to his death yet again, he will be </span>
  <em>
    <span>disappointed</span>
  </em>
  <span>. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>It’s a very uncomfortable cage. He can’t stretch out very far and he has to sit in a specific way in order to have as little of his body hanging over open air as possible. The not-quite-smooth rocks dig into the part of his back he’s realizing likely has a bruise from being thrown into the ground.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Wondering if there are any other injuries he should worry about, he opens up the front of his shirt, immediately closing it again once he sees the giant bruise that is there. Might be best not to check over himself any more.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>He coughs, and coughs up blood, and hopes that someone comes for him soon. He hopes that it is Rapunzel because she’s put herself between him and danger enough times that she’s who he feels safest with. He hopes it’s anyone but Rapunzel because she really doesn’t deserve this again. He feels guilty for wishing for her to be in this situation, as Cassandra’s intent seems to be to kill her.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Had he really been like that? His mind harkens back to Cassandra, nearly crushed in the grip of his automaton; Rapunzel, and her face when he’d told her he’d been using her; and the queen, her foot chained to the wall of his lab while he made plans to destroy her family. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>He really had lost it.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>He vows to apologize to everyone again when- if?- he gets out of this.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>He coughs up blood again, and makes the mistake of looking down. Everything is so far down and Cassandra could just </span>
  <em>
    <span>drop</span>
  </em>
  <span> him so easily, and what if she does? </span>
  <em>
    <span>Or what if she just leaves him here forever?</span>
  </em>
  <span> He doesn’t want to die here!  He’s stuck in this small, tiny, </span>
  <em>
    <span>little</span>
  </em>
  <span> cage and the world is becoming dizzy and spinning and he can’t focus, and he wonders if it is because he’s so high, high up (</span>
  <em>
    <span>he could be dropped</span>
  </em>
  <span>), but no, being high up doesn’t make the corners of your vision go black so it can’t be that, he thinks, it must be something else…</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Varian passes out.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>----------</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The boy clearly reacts to the dream she gave him. Even after she’s left his dream, he still twitches, and his mouth opens as if he’s about to scream.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>He doesn’t scream himself awake, unfortunately, and, even more unfortunately, she herself can’t do anything about it. She really hopes that the sundrop and her little extras will wake the boy up, or else she’ll have to switch to Plan B.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>----------</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Blondie, I found Varian.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Rapunzel squints at the far off cage that contains a vaguely Varian-sized lump. He must be </span>
  <em>
    <span>so scared</span>
  </em>
  <span>; she knows he’s had quite a few bad experiences with heights.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Don’t worry, Varian! We’ll get you out of there!” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>She doesn’t know how they will, but they will get him to safety if it’s the last thing she does. He’s only sixteen; he doesn’t deserve this.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Varian must not hear her, so Eugene tries. “Are you alright, Varian?” he yells.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Varian still doesn’t respond. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Varian!” she shouts, at the same time Eugene shouts, “Hey, kid!”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>No response.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The rocks beneath their feet shake, and Rapunzel feels a sudden surge of fear. “She must know we’re here,” she realizes, “Go, help Varian. I’m gonna go find Pascal.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Eugene cups her cheek and reminds her to be careful, and she loves him even more.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>She looks for Pascal, finds Cassandra instead, and then she is trapped in a fight she </span>
  <em>
    <span>does not want </span>
  </em>
  <span>to be in. It’s clear to her that Cass is hurting, and Rapunzel wants so badly to be able to help her (to be able to hold her again like she can now hold Varian), but Cassandra wants a fight and so Rapunzel has to dodge.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>She’s not as good at dodging as she thought, she thinks, right after a thin, blunt rock hits her hard in the back. Her hair can’t heal her this time, and it’s only by sheer force of </span>
  <span>terror</span>
  <span> will that she stays standing. She can’t breathe enough to speak, but her legs move for her when Cassandra sends rocks after her again, and she just barely stays ahead of them </span>
  <em>
    <span>until she doesn’t.</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>And so she finds herself hanging by just her hair, screaming in pain. It’s only a few seconds before she can find a foothold to let her weight rest on, but it’s enough that she can feel thick liquid on her scalp.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Cassandra really seems out to hurt people, she thinks. She hopes Varian is okay.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>----------</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Oh man, oh man, you gotta be okay kid!” Eugene panics, shaking the teenager’s shoulder through the bars. It had taken some time and a good deal of bravery for Eugene to cross the beam, and once he had, he’d realized that the issue wasn’t that Varian couldn’t hear them. Or rather, it wasn’t the whole issue.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The kid </span>
  <em>
    <span>isn’t waking up, </span>
  </em>
  <span>no matter what Eugene tries, and he’s freaking out a little bit. Varian had never been his favorite person, but he knows Rapunzel cares for the kid a lot, and even if Varian were his least favorite person- which he isn’t, a witch permanently claims that title- a teenager still doesn’t deserve this.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>He wonders what pushed Cassandra to do this; last he knew, she only had a grudge against Rapunzel. Maybe she was still angry about Varian’s stint as a bad guy? He has to admit he is having a hard time getting over that one too, but the kid grew on him pretty fast the first time around, and it’s looking like he’s growing on him again. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Still, if Cassandra is willing to knock out an innocent-at-least-this-time kid, how much worse is she going to do to Rapunzel?</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>He wishes he could check up on her, and it looks like someone (the wrong someone) heard his prayer because suddenly the beam he’s sitting on begins to move back towards the tower.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>He positions himself in front of the kid, and prepares himself for anything.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>----------</span>
  <span><br/>
<br/>
</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Cassandra pulls the males back inside, and the movement causes the youngest to wake up. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Which means he hadn’t been awake before.</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Zhan Tiri doesn’t know what to do now. She needs the sundrop alive in order to escape her prison, so Cassandra can’t damage her. The boy didn’t have a chance to get the incantation, so there’s nothing she can do about that.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The best plan right now is to get Cassandra to retreat to fight another day. By then, hopefully the boy will have used the sun and given the fourth incantation to the sundrop. Then, she will be free. Then, but not today. She can wait.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>There’s just one problem with this plan: Cassandra isn’t ready to back down. She thinks she’s winning, so she’s not giving up now.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Cassandra’s insecurity is as clear as day; it’s what makes her so easy for Zhan Tiri to manipulate. She grew up feeling the pressure to be perfect, and never feeling like she was good enough. It only took a small amount of Zhan Tiri’s ancient magic to manipulate those feelings into something stronger, darker, uglier, and twisted against her </span>
  <em>
    <span>closest friend</span>
  </em>
  <span>.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Oh yes, Zhan Tiri is very much in control here, but the foolish girl does not know this yet, and so she rebels.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Leave, Cassandra!” she commands, “You will not win today!”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I </span>
  <em>
    <span>am </span>
  </em>
  <span>winning!” Cassandra snarls back, and the sundrop girl looks angry for the first time.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“This is what winning is to you?” she yells, and points to the boy. “Look at him! He isn’t fighting you! Look at me!” Cassandra doesn’t make eye contact. “No, </span>
  <em>
    <span>look</span>
  </em>
  <span> at me Cassandra. I’m not fighting you!”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Zhan Tiri is </span>
  <em>
    <span>done.</span>
  </em>
  <span> She is not going to wait around here watching the naive sundrop try fuitiley to win her friend back. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Come on, Cassandra! Listen to me!” she demands, “It is </span>
  <b>
    <em>time to leave</em>
  </b>
  <span>!”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The stupid girl rebels again. “</span>
  <em>
    <span>I’ll do what I want!” </span>
  </em>
  <span>she screams.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Who are you talking to?!” the three fools shout simultaneously.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>----------</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Who are you talking to?!” Rapunzel, Eugene, and Varian all ask at the same time and, honestly, Cassandra </span>
  <em>
    <span>doesn’t know.</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Someone! No one! I don’t know!” She can’t deal with any more questions, right now. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Cass-” Rapunzel starts to say. Cassandra </span>
  <em>
    <span>loses it.</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Can’t everyone just SHUT UP? For once! I’m sick of being told what to do!”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>They shut up.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>In the quiet, she takes a long, hard look at Varian. He’s blinking blearily from the floor of the cage, and his shirt has fallen open to reveal heavily discovered skin. Had she actually done that to him?</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Are, are you okay kid?” she has to ask. She never wanted to seriously hurt him.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Nghhh,” the kid stutters, “N-no, I’m not okay.” He grits his teeth against the words coming out of them, and she realizes that he must still be under the effects of the truth serum.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>For the first time since she’s grabbed the moonstone, she feels </span>
  <em>
    <span>guilty. </span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>She looks around herself some more. She sees Eugene, struggling to breathe with the rocks constricting around him; sees Rapunzel pinned to the wall, the top of her hair red with blood. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>She-</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>----------</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>She’s losing her grip. How could she be losing her grip? She can’t be losing her grip!</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>But she is, and Cassandra is starting to break through the haze of anger Zhan Tiri has shrouded her in.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>It’s time for Plan B. Possession.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Possession is never Plan A for Zhan Tiri because it is </span>
  <em>
    <span>hard.</span>
  </em>
  <span> It takes a lot of energy, thus she can only do it for so long, and she loses all other control of her victim, including emotional control.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>If she possesses the girl, then she will lose all ability to manipulate her.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Still, she has no other choice, now. She goes into Cassandra and finds that having a real body again is </span>
  <em>
    <span>overwhelming.</span>
  </em>
  <span> The body’s hand hurts beneath the armor and it is running on little sleep and little food. It’s not ideal, but it is still something she hasn’t had in a long while, and she smiles through the body’s mouth.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>She notices the way the looks on the three’s faces change when she smiles and knows they know something is up. Zhan Tiri was never good at faking being human, so it figures that her human smile would be a bit disorienting.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The sundrop, the man, and the boy all look angry now, but they’re still trapped on the wall, in the rocks, and in the cage respectively, and can do nothing to stop her.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Cassandra, however, is still not willing to give up. Her subconscious claws at Zhan Tiri’s for control, and for just a moment, she succeeds. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“H-help me,” Cassandra gasps out, clearly horrified, “This isn’t-”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Zhan Tiri wrests control back, and she smiles wider, just to throw them off. “Well, this has been </span>
  <em>
    <span>fun</span>
  </em>
  <span>,” she smirks, “but we’ll be going now. Until next time.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>She lifts the body’s hands and bends the rocks to her will, twisting the body’s hands in unnatural ways. She has the power of the moondrop now, but none of the finesse the girl has worked hard to earn, and when she rips a hole in the side of the tower in order to escape, she also rips most of the black rocks from the ground, tearing the roof right off the edifice.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Not looking back at the destruction for a moment, she rides a black rock out the hole and into the night. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Today is a draw, Zhan Tiri supposes. She’s lost her ability to manipulate the girl in the future, but soon the sundrop will have the fourth incantation. All she has to do is wait and keep the girl in line until then.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>----------</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The balck rocks come crashing down, and the ones holding Rapunzel, Eugene, and Varian fall apart, letting the three of them drop to the ground.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Rapunzel gets up to chase, certain now that Cassandra is very much not okay, but pitches forward as soon as she gets to her feet. She falls against the wall, barely managing to hold herself up through the haze of pain. It seems the adrenaline has finally worn off, though she doesn’t understand why it has to now, now that she needs it the most.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Eugene catches his breath rather quickly and rushes over to help her to the ground. Once she’s settled, he heads back over to check on Varian, who is beginning to sit up, clenching his hand around his stomach.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Once Rapunzel is certain she’s steady enough to stand, she gets up and walks over to join the boys. She sees for the first time up close the dark bruises around his wrists and on his stomach. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>She opens her mouth to ask, but Eugene speaks before she can. “C’mon guys,” he says softly, “let’s get out of here.” He reaches down to lift up the teenager, who blushes darkly but keeps his mouth shut at being picked up bridal style, and the three start the long, slow trek down.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Halfway down, they run into Lance, Max, Kiera, and Catalina. Eugene nods at Lance, a silent thanks for keeping the girls out of harm’s way, and Lance holds open his arms to take Varian so that Eugene can support Rapunzel on the way down.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“So,” Lance asks, when he can’t pretend nonchalance anymore, “are you guys okay?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Ny-no,” Varian stutters, “I-I think rib-bs are poss-possibly cracked and I was- I was coughing up bl-blood earlier so that’s prob-probably nuhh-not good.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>All five other pairs of human eyes widen at the detailed list of injuries, and Lance holds Varian even more gently. “Don’t worry, kid,” he assures, “We’ll get you help in no time.” He looks to Rapunzel, who is slowing down with each step she takes, giving Eugene more and more of her weight. “And, what about you, Princess?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I’m- I’m fine, Lance.” No one believes her, which she doesn’t expect them to, but no one calls her on it, and that’s just as well.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>As they keep walking, Lance and Eugene keep up a stream of idle banter, intending to distract the others from what has occured. It only works on Kiera and Catalina.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>They make it to the horses and, very, very carefully, saddle up. The ride back goes slowly, every movement of the horses sending waves of sore pain throughout the injured parties. They travel so slowly that talking amongst the group is relatively easy, and fairly inevitable.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“So, what all happened back there, V?” Kiera asks. She and Catalina have been out of the loop the whole time now, and she’s getting a little sick of it.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“W-well…” Varian’s teeth grit together, and then pull apart just as fast. “Cassandra gave me my own truth serum while I was knocked out so that when I woke up I had no-no choice but to tell her the third incantation- I’m so, so sorry for that by the way- and then she built a tow-tower out of the rocks and then we went up the tower and I tr- I tried to talk to her but I- but I couldn’t and- and-”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Woah, slow down kid,” Eugene says, “Did you say truth serum?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Yuh- yes, it’s a creat-creation of my own design that compels the user to answer any question honestly.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“So, you have to answer?” Eugene grimaces.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Ye-yeah,” Varian stutters. At least now these are questions he doesn’t mind answering, but he still doesn’t appreciate having no choice in the matter.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Alrighty, then!” Eugene claps, “New rule: no one asks Varian questions until we’re sure the serum has worn off!”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The others nod in agreement, and Varian feels a wave of gratefulness sweep through him. It makes him relax enough that his eyes fall closed, just a little. “Thanks, Eugene,” he says.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“No problem, kid,” Eugene smiles, “Just remember, you don’t need to apologize for what Cassandra did.” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Yeah,” Rapunzel agrees, “We’re proud of you, Varian.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“You, you are?” he asks, shocked. He didn’t really do anything. If anything, he made the situation even worse, giving her the incantation, </span>
  <em>
    <span>having made the truth serum in the first place…</span>
  </em>
  <span> “Why? I- I don’t… get it…”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Varian is out like a light.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The rest of the ride home is quiet, everyone doing their best not to wake the alchemist up from some much-needed rest.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>When they finally make it to the castle, they go straight to the infirmary. The matron on duty wraps up a now-awake Varian and Rapunzel’s wounds, and sends them on their way.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The party walks Rapunzel to her room. She gets into bed, exhausted, and pulls Eugene down next to her. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Hey,” she says, drowsily. “It’s not all bad, right? At least we know now that Cass isn’t </span>
  <em>
    <span>actually </span>
  </em>
  <span>the bad guy. Plus! Plus, we have Varian back now!” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>She smiles at Varian, and he feels warm.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Lance, Kiera and Catalina begin to leave the room, but Varian doesn’t want to feel alone and cold again.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Is it, um, is it okay if I stayed here? Safe-safety in numbers and all that?” He can’t meet their eyes when he asks this, afraid he’ll hear them say that </span>
  <em>
    <span>you’re sixteen, you should be able to stay by yourself</span>
  </em>
  <span> and everything he’s been telling himself for months. He shouldn’t need to follow his dad around everywhere, and he shouldn’t need this…</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Of course you can stay!” Rapunzel replies, and Eugene pats the spot on the bed next to him. Hesitantly, Varian sits down on the bed, and Eugene pulls both him and Rapunzel into side hugs. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I’ll keep all of us safe,” the newly-twenty-six year-old man replies. “You two just sleep.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Hey!” Kiera calls from the door, “We’re tired, too!” She takes Catalina with one hand and Lance with the other and, without waiting for an invitation, drags them both to the bed with her. They climb in on Varian’s other side, and the girls end up, like Varian, squashed between the protections of Eugene and Rapunzel on one side, and Lance on the other.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Lance, Rapunzel, and the girls fall asleep rather quickly, but the other two lie awake. Eugene keeps both eyes wide open, ready to stand guard and Varian simply can’t seem to close his eyes.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Everything is going to be alright, Varian,” Eugene comforts, “Don’t you worry.” He gives Varian’s shoulder a squeeze and the boy feels his eyes begin to close.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Yeah,” he agrees, “Yeah, it is.” The truth spoken, his eyes slip shut.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Eugene pulls everyone closer and keeps his eyes open as long as he can, but soon his too close. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>----------</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>They run miles and miles before Zhan Tiri’s hold begins to waver. Having decided that they’ve sprinted enough, she lets her hold on Cassandra go. The blue haired woman falls to the ground, her body is so potently exhausted, and it must disturb her, Zhan Tiri thinks, not having been the one to exhaust it.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I had a plan, Cassandra. You ruined it, and you did not stop to think that maybe, just maybe, I had a backup? That maybe </span>
  <em>
    <span>you </span>
  </em>
  <span>were the backup all along? This situation we are in now is not ideal for me.” Zhan Tiri paces in front of the girl. “I cannot manipulate you any more and I can only possess you for so long. But rest assured, if this is not ideal for me then it will not be ideal for you, either. When I,” she laughs, “</span>
  <em>
    <span>borrow</span>
  </em>
  <span> your body, I will need to practise control of the rocks, and get used to having a vessel once more.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“You can’t do this!” Cassandra shouts, attempting to get off the ground. Her body does not comply.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I can and I will,” Zhan Tiri smiles, relishing being finally known, fully feared. “I will wear you out until your body crashes and cannot get up. I will use you to the point where even when I cannot be in you, you will be unable to fight, unable to move, and unable to </span>
  <em>
    <span>scream</span>
  </em>
  <span>. And then, </span>
  <em>
    <span>we will repeat</span>
  </em>
  <span>. So, I suggest you get some rest, Cassandra. You will need it.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Cassandra passes out.</span>
</p><p><br/>
<br/>
<br/>
</p>
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